Chapter 3

Susan's whole family was furious with her for cheating on me.

I was in a strange, almost surreal situation where my folks had sided with Susan. I think it most likely, with me being an only child, that they were worried about keeping in contact with their grandchildren.

But Sue's whole family saw things in a completely different way and took my side. Whilst they stayed in contact with Susan, they definitely gave her a pretty hard time of things.

Susan had kept the main house in the divorce settlement, but the rest of the property was mine. As none of the conversions on the other buildings we had planned were finished, I didn't sell them on. I figured I'd wait until I could afford to have them completed before I sold them. To be honest I don't think I really wanted to see the end of my dream.

My visits with my children were all arranged and organised by my mother-in-law. She would have the children at her house over the weekends and I would take them out from there.

I also found myself in the even stranger situation of being invited to Susan's families parties, wedding receptions and the like, along with my children, when Sue had been told her presence would not be appreciated.

Michael and the twins appeared to take the divorce quite well. They seemed to enjoy all the fuss I made of them over the weekends. They told me that their mother no longer went out to work (she didn't have to with the maintenance I was paying). They also said something that upset me. They told me her friend comes round to see her often. When I enquired about this friend; they described a large man whom I took to be Gary Wilson. "So much for Sue's one night-stand," I thought.

About four months after the divorce was final, I was called up to the managing director's office at work one day. As I walked in, I found three men in flash suits from head office waiting for me. They introduced themselves, then told me they were taking me out to lunch and we went to one of the best hotels locally.

As we ate lunch they asked all sorts of probing questions about my family and private life. To be honest I was getting a little annoyed with them; what the hell has my private life got to do with them? In the end I said something about it and the guy in charge said, "Okay, Donald, we'll come clean with you. We've been watching you for sometime, since you took over as factory manager, in fact. The efficiency at your plant has gone through the roof in the last couple of years. We've read all the reports and we know that, although some of your superiors would like to claim the credit, the credit is really all yours."

I didn't know what to say. So I just sat and looked at them.

"Right, Donald, when we heard about your divorce, we thought you might be interested in a proposal we have for you. The group has bought out a Hungarian company and we have been looking for someone to go out there and sort the factories out. Someone that can do what you have done here. You would have a free hand - appraise the staff, make sure the right people are making the decisions and giving the orders."

"Gentlemen, I appreciate your confidence in me; but I'm not sure I'm the man you need. I came up from the shop floor and have no formal business training."

"Donny, you're too modest! We know what you have done here over the last three years. Now we would like you to go over to Hungary and try to do the same there. Just on a somewhat larger scale. We are sure you can do it; otherwise we wouldn't ask you. You will jump straight onto the company's main board. You will have a contract that will leave you with more money in one year than you'll make here in ten; even if you fail and leave within the year. Will you give it a go? We feel you'll rise to the challenge and enjoy yourself."

The package they laid before me was just too good to ignore. The salary they were offering was way beyond anything I ever imagined. Just about all my living expenses whilst I was abroad, including the cost travelling back to England for a long weekend every month was thrown in. If things didn't work out I was guaranteed a golden handshake of £100.000 after six months and a bonus with an untold number of nought's in it if I were successful. These guys wanted me really bad and were willing to pay for me.

I had no choice. I had to accept the offer and within a month I took up residence in a nice villa on the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary. I had two quite beautiful young Hungarian interpreters/secretary's, who worked on a shift system. One of them was by my side from six in the morning until midnight. They were great girls and both of them had a really good sense of humour; the banter that passed between us kept me sane, whilst I weeded out the dead wood and got the guys who knew what they were doing in the right jobs. I also had a chauffeur whose wife acted as my housekeeper; they lived in a flat attached to the villa. They had two children about the same age as mine. I sometimes found myself feeling melancholic watching the children play.

Every fourth weekend I would fly into Newquay airport on Friday evening to be met by ex-in-law's who would have my children with them. They would drop us for the weekend at the cottage near the sea that I had bought with my new-found wealth. I would play the doting father until Monday morning when the in-law's would drive me back to the airport, then take the children back home to their mother.

I would often bring one or sometimes both my secretary's over to England with me, as a treat for them. I also brought my chauffeur and his family over on a couple of occasions. They had a great time. Remember, the chauffeur and his wife grew up under communism. They told me that as children, England was a place people dreamed about going. Some of the old timers who had been in England during the war would tell them that they wished they had stayed there as many of their friends had.

In the late summer of my third year in Hungary, my mother-in-law brought my children over for a month's holiday. One afternoon when the mother-in-law had taken the twins for a walk by the lake-shore, Michael - who was now eleven - and I were sitting out on the patio, Michael drinking yet another Coke and me with a local beer (I could just about tolerate the stuff by then). Michael suddenly turned to me and asked, "Dad, are you ever going to forgive mum?"

"Forgive her for what, son?"

"For being a silly bitch, of course!"

I nearly choked over my beer.

"You can't go calling your mother a silly bitch, Michael."

"Why not? That's what she says she is. When I asked her why you left home she said it was because she had been a silly bitch and you would never forgive her for it."

"I think she meant that what she did was something a silly bitch would do. I don't think she was really saying that she was a silly bitch."

"Well, she was a silly bitch, wasn't she? To sleep with that creep."

I spluttered, spraying my beer all over the place as I choked again. How did this 11-year-old child know that Sue had slept with Wilson?

"Who told you that?" I demanded.

"Mother did, of course; I was angry with you for leaving us, and mother told me that it was all her fault that you had gone. She said that she had made a bad mistake, and slept with some man she met at work. She said that you had found out about it and that made you so angry with her that you left."

"That's about what happened."

"Well, are you still angry with her?"

"I'll always be annoyed about what she did, but that's over now. We have gone our own ways."

"If it's over, why can't you come back home now?"

"Look, Michael, your mother and I are divorced. That means we are not married anymore. Your mother can get on with her life and find herself another husband."

"But she doesn't want another husband; she wants you to come back. She says you're the only man she'll ever love."

"Well, you know that isn't correct, Michael. You told me yourself about her friend."

"Who? Uncle Mark. Yes, he's her friend but she doesn't love him. He only comes to see mum when he's got Auntie Shirley with him. Mum calls her the chaperone or something. Mum says you're the only man that will ever come into our house without a chaperone. Uncle Mark keeps trying to tell mum she should go back to work. He says that might cheer her up as she spends most of the time crying when we are at school. But mum says it was meeting a man at work that got her into the mess she's in. Gran and Gramps go to the house most days to keep mum company and take her shopping and things."

"Does your mother ever go out?"

"Not without us, but she can't take us out anymore, now she hasn't got a car."

"What the hell happened to her car?"

"Oh, it failed some test and mum said it wasn't legal to drive it anymore and she said we couldn't afford to have it fixed. So she got rid of it."

"You know, Michael. Your mother might not be a silly bitch, but she sure can be a silly cow sometimes. Why the hell didn't she tell me she couldn't afford to replace her car? I'd have sorted something out for her."

"Dad, how could mum tell you she didn't have a car? You never see her or talk to her."

"Point taken, son! But we can't have her stuck out there in the middle of nowhere without transport. I think we'd better fix that right now. Will you go and get me the phone please."

Michael brought me the telephone and I called an old friend in Cornwall, who dabbles in second hand cars. A bit of arguing over prices and he promised to deliver a five year old Astra Estate to Sue that evening.

Later that night after the children had had their daily chat with Susan; Adele came up to me and gave me a big kiss.

"That's from mummy. She said it's for her new car. She said I was to tell you it's lovely and to say thank you for it. But she said to tell you she doesn't deserve it."

The rest of the holiday went off without much incident. On the Friday when we all flew back into Newquay I saw a red Astra estate parked beside my father-In-law's car.

He came over to me and said, "I hope you don't mind. Susan told me on the phone she was coming. I told her it might not be a good idea, but she insisted as she was missing the children so much."

"No, that's fine with me, Jack. They're her kids; she's got the right to welcome them back."

"That's great. I was a little worried; we don't need a scene or anything."

"All water under the bridge Jack; you can't bear a grudge forever, you know."

"Does that mean you'll talk to me now?"

Susan had taken me by surprise and crept up behind me; she must have been hiding somewhere as I hadn't noticed her before.

"It can't do any harm, can it?" I replied.

"In that case, I can thank you for the car personally. It was very kind of you."

"I bought the bloody house out in the middle of nowhere, I can't expect you and the children to live out there without any transport, can I?"

"Well, it's a lovely house, and I love living there. Even if it is lonely without the man I love."

"Now please don't start anything, Susan."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know how I feel, Donny."

"Okay, but I think we'd better change the subject before something gets said that could upset someone."

I was looking at the woman I loved, not really hearing what she was saying. I found myself wishing I hadn't gone to Basingstoke that day.

"In that case, thanks for letting me have the children this weekend; it is your weekend to have them really."

"They've been with me for the last four weeks. It's only fair you have them this weekend."

"Thanks, but I really wanted to ask you if we can meet up and have a talk. We've got to discuss the children's future sometime; we can't discuss things properly second hand through my parents."

"Yes, I do see what you mean. I think we should be able to arrange something."

"Good. How about you coming to dinner tomorrow night then?"